1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of vascular intervention, and more particularly to a guide catheter assembly for facilitating direction changes in percutaneous endovascular procedures.
2. Description of the Related Art
Diagnosis and treatment of vascular conditions are commonly performed using percutaneous endovascular procedures, which involve the insertion of a catheter or the like into a blood vessel or artery of the vascular system. Known catheterization procedures include positioning and using stents and balloons within constricted vessels or arteries, and intravenous administering of bloods, drugs and other fluids. The first step in these procedures is establishing a site through the skin by which access is made to the blood vessel or artery. A wire guide then is introduced into the vessel or artery, and a guide catheter is used to assist in advancing the wire guide to a desired location. A working catheter may then be advanced to the desired location over the wire guide in a safe and atraumatic fashion.
Typically, pre-shaped wire guides and/or guide catheters are used to move the wire guide to the desired location within the vascular system. However, because of the convoluted nature of the pathways within the vascular system and the fact that locations may vary from one individual to another, the use of pre-shaped wire guides and/or guide catheters may require clinicians to stock multiple shapes and sizes of wire guides and/or guide catheters to account for potential variations. Further, use of these pre-shaped wire guides and/or guide catheters may require a time consuming trial and error process of inserting and removing different pre-shaped wire guides and/or guide catheters until the desired location is successfully reached. Yet further, the stiffness of the working catheter may cause a properly positioned wire guide, having a pre-shaped curve, to flip back into a straight configuration when the working catheter is inserted over the wire guide, thus making some sharp direction changes nearly impossible to achieve.
Additionally, it has proven to be difficult, if not impossible in some cases, to reverse the direction of the wire guide advancement through the initial access site. For example, after introducing a wire guide in the retrograde direction, it may be necessary or desirable to advance the wire guide into the vessel or other structure in the antegrade direction. A new access site in the opposite direction normally must be established to permit the advancement of the wire guide and, ultimately, working catheter in the opposite direction. Preparing a new access site is undesirable since it may require additional time and costs and may increase discomfort and the risk of infection to the individual. In addition, certain anomalies, such as obesity, may prohibit use of a desired access point in a desired direction for some individuals.
The present disclosure is directed toward one or more of the problems set forth above.